The history, causes, politics and consequences of an ancient, addictive

and destructive behavior

Nathaniel S. Lehrman, M.D.

Abstract: I examine the changing attitudes toward same-sex relationships over history, sexual relationships which can be most simply regarded as habit: their universality in antiquity; their being banned for the first time by Judaism, and then by Christianity; and their resurgence after the invention by German same-sex afficianados of a permanent homosexual (Uranian) “identity”: “the sodomite, [who] had been a temporary aberration,” thus became the “homosexual, [who] was now a species.” After examining the Lamarckian fallacy underlying 19th century German scientists’ erroneously seeing homosexuality as both fixed and inborn, as well as the dubious efforts of German-speaking psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and Magnus Hirschfeld, I scrutinize the rapid political growth of homosexuality in Germany, and the central role of its devotees (one of them Hitler himself) within Nazism. I then outline some of the skillful political efforts in the USA to legitimatize homosexual behavior, including the scientific lies underlying the Supreme Court’s decision to decriminalize it. The paper concludes by defining some overlooked attitudes and behaviors often associated with homosexuality: defiance, promiscuity, disease and premature death.